Magna & StartUs Insights Announce Winners Of Driving The Future Of Mobility Startup Challenge

Innovation in sectors like e-mobility, autonomous driving, sensor technology and additive manufacturing is one of Magna’s key objectives. For the automotive supplier, the collaboration with disruptive startups is the cornerstone of shaping the future of the industry.

Hundreds Of Applications From Across Europe

More than 230 European startups made their move and applied for the challenge in four categories – these are the future drivers of mobility:

• Autonomy: TerraLoupe
• Connected Car: HOMYHUB
• Mobility as a Service: Drover
• Mobility Solutions: Powerplace

“Our aim is to work with the brightest entrepreneurs in the industry, help them bring their ideas to market, and continue providing must-have innovations to our customers. The four winning startups of Driving The Future Of Mobility will certainly contribute to achieving these goals”, said Ian Simmons, VP Business Development and R&D at Magna.

Mentorship Event & 28.000€ For Winners

Across the four challenges, the finalists won a total of 28.000€ in equity-free prize money as well as the chance to assess further project development and opportunities in the automotive industry, including the possibility to further work with Magna.

On December 12, TerraLoupe (Munich, Germany), HOMYHUB (Madrid, Spain), Drover (London, UK), and Powerplace (Berlin, Germany) were invited to a Mentorship Event hosted at Magna’s branch office in Munich Following a presentation by Ian Simmons, the startups highlighted their solutions.

TerraLoupe focuses on the development of plane-/drone-based HD maps. The aerial images are analyzed by proprietary machine learning algorithms, and provide object recognition to locate relevant information.

HOMYHUB lets customers control, monitor, and manage access to their garage anywhere at anytime. The solution is safer than remotes as it used Military Grade Encryption to keep garages secure. Moreover, owners can also invite a guest to use their garage.

Drover offers a flexible car subscription service. The startup grants individuals the possibility to choose from a variety of Uber-approved cars from Toyota Prius to Mercedes S Class at a one-week minimum rental term.

Powerplace collects public data with exact geo-hash (latitude and longitude) and timestamp. Employing this technology allows for prediction of when the next passenger will call a taxi as well as in which regions the highest probability for a pedestrian is.

Promoting Innovation In The Mobility & Automotive Sector

The Mentorship Event was attended by Boris Shulkin, VP, R&D Business Development; Steffan Wonder, Director Advanced Engineering; Peter Trage, Executive Director for BMW Group as well as by David R. Prasser, CEO & Founder StartUs Insights and Iryna Bursuk, COO StartUs Insights.

“Magna’s acknowledgment of startups at the forefront of digitalization and creative disruption is a sign that these companies are the future of the industry and a viable partner to learn from,” said Prasser.

To further shape the future of the transportation industry, Magna will continue to work with StartUs Insights to identify cutting-edge startups in Europe. “In partnering with StartUs Insights we see great potential to advance the scope and depth of our startup engagement in Europe,” said Ian Simmons. For the partnership, StartUs Insights builds and executes Magna’s European startup-driven innovation pipeline. Innovative startups interested in partnering with the automotive leader can now reach out via the “Leading Mobility” program.

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